How Skill Gap Hinders Job Readiness Among Youth in Rural India

As an obvious reaction to the pandemic, many aspects of our daily lives switched to an online method. Shopping is done online, payments are done online, and so is learning. Devices like mobile phones and tablets, the internet, and their applications like social media etc are a part of our lives and routine. It touches every aspect of society and changes it dramatically.
But there lives a huge mass of society that has not seen the dawn of computers. In such areas, there are no telephone or electricity lines, let alone internet connectivity.
While there are many reasons why rural India did not adopt technology, the two main reasons are poverty and lack of personnel. Many youngsters complete their education but never land a job owing to their poor digital skills.

No access to technology

According to the data released by the Global Business Coalition for Education (GBC-Education), the Education Commission, and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), approximately 54% of South Asian youth that leave school will lack the necessary skills to find a decent job by 2030.
The data also said that more than 50% of Indian youth are not on track to have the education and skills necessary for employment by 2030. It says that in India an outdated curriculum is being followed along with poor quality infrastructure and faculty. This makes it difficult to provide students with the necessary skills.
Now that the pandemic has forced most of us into remote working and telecommuting. This is likely to become a larger phenomenon in the future, opening up different employment avenues for rural youth. For example, some companies announced initiatives like setting up BPOs in semi-rural areas to provide training and employment opportunities.
The pandemic could well be a catalyst for the emergence of a new paradigm of skill training and work opportunities.

Skill development programmes

BharatCares, a non-profit organisation in India is working towards empowering the underprivileged. They strive to do this by providing education, life skills, and creating an entrepreneurial environment. Through their initiative BharatCareers, they are providing placement-linked training programs that have empowered several individuals.

Currently, three programs are being offered - Youth Job Readiness Program, Computer and Digital Literacy Program, and Banking and Financial Skill Development Program.

The Youth Job Readiness Program prepares final year undergraduate and graduate students for the job market. They mentor and train youth with life skills or offer entrepreneurship training to make them future job-creators.
The Computer Training and Digital Literacy Program provides basic computer and digital literacy training for girls and women who have either dropped out from school or are currently pursuing their education. The onsite training program opens up avenues for housewives and married women who want to get hands-on training in the digital literacy space.

BFSI Skill Development Program aims to open avenues for the aspiring youth of our country who are keen on making their career in the banking and finance sector. The program focuses on equipping 12th pass students, final year undergraduates and graduates with the BFSI skills and relevant job-readiness skills.

Roshini Muthukumar

Roshini Muthukumar, a native of Chennai, started her career as a content writer but made a switch to journalism to pursue her passion. She has experience writing about human interest stories, innovative technology, entrepreneurs, research blogs, and more. Previously, Roshini has done internships with The Hindu, Metroplus and worked as a correspondent with The Better India.